Andretti Autosport driver Danica Patrick struggles at Bump Day qualifiers – IndyCar news
Andretti Autosport driver Danica Patrick is currently in the lead at the Bump Day qualifiers after struggling due to inclement weather.
Despite the two rain delays and a messed up schedule, she qualified for the 100th anniversary event for the Indy 500.
Patrick started to face the problems when she found an issue with her car. Her no. 7 Go Daddy car was scheduled to make a track run when the qualifying started. Unfortunately, her car did not make through technical inspections and was disqualified due to
the squeaks from her car’s rear brakes.
Instead of her second run on the track, she had to make a run from the back of the qualifying line. With a threat of heavy rainfall, it appeared to be a bad mistake. Her frustrations increased when Graham Rahal was promoted to her second place run for the
qualifying. Rahal completed his run for the session before the first heavy rain downpour. In the following circumstances, the track was closed for two hours.
The next day’s six-hour qualifying session was again delayed by a downpour which caused the session to be postponed for more than two hours. After the two-hour break, further rain delayed the session by 30 more minutes.
Patrick awaited her turn after the session resumed. Just when she was ready to go, a storm hit the venue leaving Patrick idle in her car for a long time. Finally, she stepped out of her car and returned to the garage clearly disappointed.
Patrick said, “I don’t think there’s a really great answer for why I was faster in qualifying today. I was disappointed with how slow I went at the end. That’s Indy.”
Following the second delay, the skies cleared after which Patrick posted a four-lap average speed of 224.861mph. It was the second fastest speed clocked in the session to score a 26th position on the starting grid.
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